Midnight Dawn

by Jocelyn Adams

  “Shit. He tried to create his own power source to merge the realities, is that what you’re saying?”

  “The power of his sun, to be precise. He destroyed it, and his planet, in the process.”

  His race must have been smarter than I thought to be able to even dream of harnessing the power of their own sun.

  Izan hung his head, and even though he said he had little understanding of emotion, he obviously felt shame to some degree. “When I finally returned to him with my findings and found their planet annihilated, their souls ripped from their bodies from the explosion and floating in the frozen void, I returned here to complete my observations of your people. There was nothing I could have done to fix it.”

  “Oh, sure. Kill a race, and go back watching the naked apes.” I tossed up my hand. “Makes perfect sense to me. So how did he end up here?”

  “That, too, is my mistake. There are channels, highways between the veils that separate one reality from the next that only I and my kind can traverse. Instead of passing only through these highways as is our law, I went through the veil itself when I went to Baku to break the news to him, that I could not merge the realities. In his anger, Baku in his wraith form followed me back through the rift I’d created and demanded what I had promised, the power source to merge the realities again so he could find his family, as I had not the power to take him there myself. I found it in the very people I’d been fascinated with for so long, and in my ignorance, I led him right to you.”

  “The power of emotion, you mean.”

  “And the power of soul when faced with adversity.”

  I scrubbed a hand down my face. “If you can create universes full of planets, why do you need us? Why can’t you wave your magic energy finger and fix everything?”

  “Even now I’m an adolescent in the eyes of my kind, not yet come into my power to create or destroy as my ancestors can. I can only form objects within false realities and share my will with some humans. Very soon, though, I must go back to my time, or I will die out like one of your stars. If that happens here, not only will your planet be at risk of destruction, but my sentience will die here. Even if I was able to eradicate the wraiths myself, I have disturbed the veil too much, and the ripple effect of my error may still bring more creatures from other places after I am gone.”

  Stars lit up my eyes, and I had to force air in or I’d have passed out. “So you need us to be able to protect ourselves. Protect a girl from a wraith, and she’s safe for a day. Teach her to kick their asses herself, and she’ll be safe for a lifetime, is that what you’re saying?”

  He smiled, but it flattened when I glared at him. “Yes.”

  “So now what? Caine thinks you were creating different configurations of the Machine and brought Baku to test them. If we can’t get along under the flags of a hundred world religions, I’m guessing you’re not actually trying to merge the realities again.”

  “No, that would be catastrophic. You are but babes in the evolutionary stages of the worlds. You would be destroyed in a matter of months.”

  Even though I couldn’t comprehend races that different from ours—aside from bugmen, of course—I believed him. “So tell me how I shut down Baku without killing him, and how to do that without most of the Machine dying, and how I keep every nasty out there on their own side of the veil for good after you hit the road.”

  “I have been testing scenarios, as the sentinel said, and have come up with only one solution.” He met my eyes again, and I gasped at the haunted expression contorting his young face. “You must contain him in the only prison strong enough to hold him.”

  I squinted, thinking about what I’d done at the museum. “Do you mean put up an energy grid somewhere? Because that didn’t hold him in New York, and I’m guessing shoving him back through the veil isn’t an option if you can’t hold him out.”

  He shook his head, and dizziness crept up on me. “You must confine him in a place of purity and light, a sanctuary that has weathered many storms. I cannot understand how such a place even exists, but I have felt the power of it, a frightening force I’ve not seen elsewhere in all my time. It is a place only you have been to, that offers shelter to others no matter what horrors rage around it. I have no maps to give you, for only you can open the way. You must issue the invitation, not only for the king, but for all of those who have sought its light.”

  “Sanctuary? Do you mean like a church?” I searched my brain for anything that fit the bill, but ran into white space beyond two months ago.

  “Follow your instincts. Find your heart and all of the pages, and you will have your answer. Glenna holds the final piece of the bible, and the final fuel that will start the Machine. When you are ready, seek it out, and it will call you to the king.” He stared at me for seconds, his expressive face searching mine before he spoke again. “I have spent most of my lifetime planning this, to undo some of the harm I, and my people, have caused. This cannot be done without sacrifice, child. Please trust that I have considered every possibility.”

  My throat closed in a bit. “Sacrifice. You’re talking about me, right? Are you saying I have to die to open the path to this place?”

  “I hope it will not come to that, but it is possible.”

  “Well, that’s just fantastic, Izan.” My attempt at sarcastic humor came out full of panic. How could I know the way to this sanctuary when I had no freakin’ idea what he was talking about? If only I’d been there, then it had to be someplace from my childhood. Which meant that I needed my memories back, but the thought of letting Asher touch me threatened to unravel my last nerve. “What happens if I don’t find this mystery prison or sanctuary or whatever?”

  “Then Baku will use your power and that of the Machine to merge the realities, and if he cannot do that, he has threatened to unleash his dead upon your people so they may regrow their bodies on your Earth, and he will consume your mother’s soul out of spite.”

  “I’m really starting to hate you,” I whispered, wrestling back an army of tears. “If you don’t understand emotion, then why have you tried so hard to save us, huh? Why not abandon us like your people did?”

  “I have begun to understand remorse, and I feel a certain…something for you. It is pleasant in some regards. That, perhaps, is pride. The other brings pain that we shall soon part. I believe I will miss you, as you would say.”

  Part as in he was leaving? Or part as in I’d soon be worm food? That cold detachment slid over me as I let it all sink in. “I wish I could say the feeling is mutual, but I don’t like to lie. Have a nice life, energy dude, and thanks for royally screwing us over. If I live, we are so done. You need to go back to wherever you came from like you said, because if you don’t, I’ll come after you next.”

  I ejected Izan from my head, enjoying his sharp stab of agony that accompanied his quick exit. There were aspects of being part of the Machine I was actually starting to enjoy, like traveling through the Shift and having some company in Crazy Town, but I should have known the crappy honeymoon would end. I was freakin’ Frodo, but instead of marching into Mordor and throwing the ring into Mount Doom, I had to throw myself in. Only I didn’t have Gollum to lead me to the Black Gates.

  Awesome.

  Die or bring on inter-dimensional war. God, my life sucked sometimes.

  I hightailed it out of the closet to find the last items on my scavenger hunt—Kyle and Sampson. Part of me mourned Asher. If he’d been beside me for the last ten minutes, I might have taken the news of my imminent doom better. No, screw that. I’d show him what I was worth by saving his ass yet again. I’d find a way to survive so I could thumb my nose at him.

  “We ready to go hunting again, Addy?” Remy stepped away from the wall he’d been leaning on. The way the big guy eyeballed me stirred thoughts that Sophia had said something to him about me, and he was worried.

  “I am, with a few others.” I kept my focus pointed down the hallway, gripping my leather-covered hips. A war went on in my hea
d, all of his kindness and acceptance on one side, and what he’d said earlier on the other, that Asher had been wrong about me. “You need to work things out with Sophia.”

  King Kong swung his bulk around in front of me. “What with the leather an’ the hair, kolohe? You don’ need to prove—”

  “Don’t I?” I said with flint, finally meeting his eyes. “Don’t presume to know me, sentinel, because you don’t. Just do what I asked you to, and get the hell out of my way.”

  Frowning, he took a step back, his giant fists drawn up tight at his sides. “Talk to me, Addy. You look like someone break you heart. Whatever happen, you tell me, and we work it out. Is it that Caine guy? I pound him if he hurt you.”

  “Nothing’s wrong. Everything is freakin’ peachy. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have shit to do. If you see Caine, tell him to meet me in the common room.”

  “Wait. You need to know the Colonel missing. Don’ know how he got outta lockup, but Asher can’t feel him out there with those senses of his, an’ some of the false reality collapsing. The one that hold the Colonel’s mansion gone, and all the outer layers of the Shift have disappeared.”

  Just what I needed, another prick on the loose gunning for my head. Why were the realities disappearing? That meant there was less of a buffer between Earth and the wraiths’ void, and they could come through to the true reality easier. Maybe the veil itself really had thinned, and that was why it felt so cold out there now.

  “Once I’m done tonight, I’ll talk to Izan again. For now, keep everyone here until I get back. If you find out who let the Colonel out, you bring them to me.” So I could lay down a few laws on their head with my fist.

  “Yeah, I do that. Don’ you worry, kolohe. Asher watch you back.”

  “No he won’t.” I marched away without looking back. The voices shouting in my head to go back and apologize for being an ass could shut it.

  A short search turned up Sampson and Kyle arguing beyond the door to the men’s communal shower.

  “I’ve seen the way you look at me,” Sampson said softly, shifting closer to the other man, “and I like it.”

  Kyle stepped back and crossed his arms, giving a bitter laugh. “You haven’t seen shit, and I told you, I’m not into dudes, so don’t even think about me that way. It’s disgusting.”

  “Shut up,” I barked from the doorway. “I don’t give a monkey’s rainbow butt what your bedroom preferences are. Nobody’s judging you. Hell, nobody even cares. None of us chose this life, but people are dying, and I need your help to stop it. You can draw each other’s power with touching anyway, so don’t stare at me like I’m asking you to hold hands or kiss. All right?”

  When they both glanced at each other and their shoulders started to drop, I turned on my heel, talking over my shoulder. “Be ready and in the common room in five minutes. Don’t make me come looking for you.”

  Once I’d have been mortified about being so harsh, so demanding—so like Asher—but not today. I no longer had time to hand-hold and soothe egos. To live. To fall in love. To wake up in someone’s arms. Asher had always told me there was no room for softness in the Machine, and he was right. If it took my life to save us all from extinction, then I’d set my personal values aside and give it up. Gladly. It had to be better than the hurt trying to eat me alive, anyway.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Twenty minutes later, six of us huddled in the common room. Sampson, Kyle, and Raldad appeared about as comfortable as a bunch of prudes at a nudie bar, while Iris shifted her feet with apparent excitement. They were all dressed in generic hunting gear of black fatigues and black T-shirts, except Iris, who wore gray camo fatigues and black combat boots.

  Caine had raided the warehouse closet, and was now outfitted with dark jeans and a blue plaid shirt he’d rolled up over muscular forearms. The fabric hugged every curve and dip of his muscular upper half. He looked gorgeous in country chic, so why wasn’t I swooning? Maybe it was my impending expiration date, or maybe my idiot heart was still bent on Asher. Life was not fair. How could I find my Shepherd in a matter of days with that dick standing in my way?

  I pointed a finger at Caine, who had a puffy lip from Asher’s fist earlier. “You and I are going to talk about your little trick back there in the training room.” I didn’t know we could use our Machine mojo to mess with someone’s lungs.

  While applying some balm to his lips, Caine grinned, leaning down to my ear. “Name the time and place, and it’s a date.”

  What? Why did he have to twist everything into a come-on?

  Frowning, I turned to the others, who were also coating their lips with various balm sticks. At first I’d only thought Asher had a thing for balm, but breathing the cold in the Shift tended to dry out the lips, so most of us applied it before going out. “All right,” I said. “I’ll search out the strongest page threads, and I need you all to pay attention to where they are so you’ll remember how to get back to the ones I assign you. Any that only need locks picked, Iris and Raldad will get. Any that are guarded by security systems, like private collections and possibly dig sites, those are Kyle and Sampson’s. Caine and I will get the easy snatch-and-grabs. The leftovers that need all of us, we’ll leave until last. We’ll stay only in the shallow layers of the Shift, because the outmost layers of false realities aren’t there anymore. And no, I don’t know why.” I hoped to high hell the entire Shift wasn’t about to collapse. Would it be gone when Izan left? I wished my mind would shut up. I didn’t need to borrow any more problems today.

  They all shared worried looks, but I wasn’t in a state of mind to comfort them.

  Asher blew in like a storm before I got us away. Ugh. He stood there all flexed and gorgeous in his black T-shirt, his gaze making a slow ascent from my boots upward. When he made it to my face, he glanced away, but not before I caught the beginnings of a nice purple shiner emerging around his left eye.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were going out again?” he asked, gone all whispers-in-the-dark. It didn’t have the effect on me it once had. “And what’s he doing here?” He jutted his chin toward Caine.

  I shrugged, turning back to my crew, who all stared at the floor with obvious discomfort, except Caine, who appeared smug.

  “Well, since you know everything,” I said, “I figured you didn’t need a formal invitation.” What would Asher think when he found I had to sacrifice myself to open some mystery sanctuary after trying so hard to keep me alive? As long as it paved the way back to his girlfriend, he’d probably be A-okay with that. “And Caine’s here because I want him here.”

  Giving Asher another glance, I added, “Where’d you get the black eye? Did you trip on your giant ego? Or did someone finally get tired of your bullshit and pop you one?”

  “What the hell is going on?” His brow wrinkled up, and his initial hardness appeared to soften. “What’s with the getup and the death glare?”

  “I’ll go out on a limb here and say perhaps she doesn’t want you here,” Caine said.

  “Don’t help me, sentinel,” I barked. To Asher, I said, “The truth is, I just don’t need you anymore. Being around me makes you miserable, and Caine is ready and willing. You’re not responsible for me. You should be happy.”

  Asher looked back and forth between us, his Middle Eastern complexion draining of color. If not for my own anger, guilt might have grown a few more teeth. “Have you shared power with him?” he asked. “I can’t believe he’s a match for you.”

  Taking the lid off my metaphysical box, I reached out and grabbed Caine’s hand. Part of me didn’t want anything to happen, and for a moment, nothing did. Until Caine released his storm, too. A nuclear flash lit up the room, including everyone in it. It was impressive, potentially destructive, and could probably have cleared a city of wraiths, but the connection didn’t touch me down deep in my soul the way I somehow knew it should. Maybe it would once I carved the Asher-scars out of there.

  I let Caine go, the brightness fading from my d
elicate network of tattoos. Asher pulled a statue, staring at me with a pained look that graced his face for only a moment before it disappeared as if it had never been. Maybe I’d imagined it, the way I’d been imagining everything else between us.

  “Satisfied?” I asked.

  When he did nothing but dissect me with his stare, I gave in to the strongest thread and launched all of us but Asher through the Shift without laying a finger on any of them. My focus was almost violent in its intensity, my need to get the pages dominating every other thorn pricking me. I shouldn’t have felt bad. He was in love with someone else. Hell, he wished we’d never met. What else was I supposed to do?

  The layers blurred around us, the cold biting against my flesh. Asher followed like a hot wind at my back. Why, when I’d let him off the hook as my babysitter? To yell at me some more? Well, he could go lick a stump.

  The numbness helped me clear my head of all but my task. It became easier to locate the pages, right down to specific areas within buildings, vault drawers, and safe-deposit boxes. I pointed out landmarks and the places they could find the pages to the rest of my company, careful to pull back enough to find house numbers, street names, and city signs as I assembled our battle plan for the day. There were fewer pages out there than I’d anticipated, and I was determined to get them all in one hunt. Especially after what Izan had said about what Baku threatened to do with Mom if I failed.

  I exited the Shift down to the first layer above the true reality somewhere in the Midwestern USA. “Kyle and Sam, you can take the mansion on Vancouver Island and that white palace in Saudi Arabia,” I said. “There are security systems, but only a few guards I’m sure you can pattern and avoid, and no locked cases. Do you remember how to get back there?”

  “Yeah, I remember,” Kyle said, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he shot a nervous glance at Sampson.

  While Asher loomed like an angry shadow in my peripheral vision, I sighed and reached out for Sampson’s hand. He hesitated for a moment before giving me his. I held out the other to Kyle, who squirmed before doing the same.